Looking Back,

Potato in the Great Depression was a great and informing book.
Although its not as interesting as I thought it was, it still got the
point across that the Potato Famine did happen. As for team
teaching I think it was the worst decision I have made regarding
my education classes. I work much better by myself, and I do not
know why I wanted to work with a partner. I feel as though it was
because I want to become an Inclusion Teacher and that involves
working with another teacher. But my partner and I had two very
different learning styles that did not mesh well together at all!

When it came time for lesson plan creation, I basically put all the
effort into the lesson plan while my partner just submitted the
"assessment section". Which was fine but I would have rather have
50% cooperation and input from both sides, but that was not the case.
I probably would have enjoyed it more if I would have had someone
helping me with a team lesson plan in this supposed, "team teaching"
situation. But all in all I would have had a happier outcome if I worked
by myself because I know my strengths and my own weakinesses.

Looking back on my lesson I do regret the whole "regaining myself"
moment, but that's what I had to do in order to keep control of myself.
If I could go back that would be the only thing I would change, that along
with not using the podcast and just reading the book. The podcast did not
work as well as i thought it would and students could not hear it. Reading
the story and using a "picture walk" like Christine did was so much better!
And I would have structured the lesson a little more throughly so that
students would be able to stay on task more without getting distracted
and confused so easily.

All in all i loved the concept of the lesson, but I would change many
things about it because it did not work out the way i was planning.

Final Thoughts

I like the way that my portion of the story came out. I'm really glad
that I finally got to finish podcasting it. Both Sharnae and I have a
great flow of the story - and my portion of the story sounds extremley
convincing! I'm positive about this podcast of Potato: A tale of the
Great Depression. There was only one problem today, whih was that
my microphone was not working so then I had to record it onto Sharnaes
podomatic. Even though I did record it, it did not come out in her RSS
feed or as a new epidsode like it should have. But it is there, and created.
I'm positive about the outcome that podcasting can make on the
classroom, when all the technology kinks are worked out!

Podcasting Plans...

Well today is the last day in the podcasting lab. I hope today to have
a full story podcast at the end of this class. Already my effective questions
are done, now its time to finish the podcast of my story that I share with
Sharnae. Since it is the last day, I hope to accomplish a good podcast with
words that are clearly articulated and a story that will grab my students'
attention. I'm going to say that I want this podcast to be perfect but I
know that perfect is a stretch. I just want a good educational podcast that
I can use in my classroom teaching that will benefit the students.

Podcasting II:

Well.. podcasting today did not go as well as I wished it would.
Sharnae and I did not finish our blog because we forgot the book, but
we made a plan to finish it during Monday and Tuesday. Instead of
finishing our blog we did search for lesson plans to see the aray of
possibilites that come out of choosing a Great Depression book. I
did choose though, that my upcoming lesson that is due on October 9th
will be a History centered lesson including Language Arts. So yeah,
i was a little frustrated that I could not finish my lesson plan like
everyone around me was doing in the computer lab, and I could not
have as much fun as they were when they were reading their stories.
But i used my time wisely and planned the learning schedule I needed
by using this book, i.e preparing a lesson plan, effective questioning, and
to seeing the other learning objectives I can use with the a book that is
about the great depression. So in the end, i'm not mad because I actually
used my time wisely, even though I didn't podcast, I still got work done!!

Effective Questioning..

　

Questions correspoding to the story:

"Potato: The story of the Great Depression"

1.) Who are the characters in the story?

2.) What happened to Clarence?

3.) How did Clarence solve his familys problems?

4.) What did the family do to get food during the night?

5.) The family had leftover potatos, what did they do with them?

Current Thoughts...

My current state of mind is making me feel that podcasting
today will be different that others. I feel more determined in the
fact that I want to get this done correctly and efficently. I'm
positive about the outlook of the finished product, and I know
that i can't wait to use this story in my elementary school classroom.
Also, i am a little nervous because I know that technology does
not always run as smoothly as one would hope. And that i do not
feel my voice is as well as others because of the way that I say
certain words. I know i can get past this though, and I will. But alas,
I know that i need to be optimistic in order to finish this podcast. So
far podcasting has been fun, i really like it and I want to
explore it more especially educationally.

Mishaps..

Today I really noticed how hard it is to blog. Not because we
are bloggingin a group, but i'm having a problem with my voice.
Everytime it comes to saying POTATO i come out with POTATA...
its annoying.. I try to say it right but everytime it comes out wrong
and it is rather frustrating!! Come Friday i'm going to have this fixed
and be able to go threw my 14 pages by saying Potato correctly. Also,
today was good we got to experience reading the book and how we
sounded. Podcasting is great for educators because it allows us to hear
what we have to work on when it comes to Language Arts and Reading
especially because we donot want our students to pick up our bad habits.
GREAT LEARNING EXPERIENCE!!

Going into Recording

Sharnae and I came up with a plan to each read one page by
ourselves, then read one page together to bring both voices
together. Hopefully this will allow us to bring across the
depressing point of the potato famine, and explain the
struggle that was their lives in this point in time.

So, today Sharnae and hi are going to be recording our story on
Pod-o-matic. I'm actually extremley nervous but i'm optimistic
about the end result. I feel that we might have to go through a
couple tries to get it the best, but practice makes perfect! Once
this is done it will be a great resource in the classroom, especially
if we use tactics to get the children interested in the story of
Potato: A tale from the great depression. =] Stayed tuned for
details, please give me feedback on the finished product!!

Posting today.. I find it interesting and frustating at the same time.
There are pros and cons to podcasting. Pros are that your students
will be able to hear your voice and follow along with the story, when
you incorporate it into a lesson. But also, if students learned to podcast,
they would be able to hear themselves speak and be able to assess their
reading. Teachers could then keep the students podcast on a disk and
show to parents as a timeline of their child's assessment. The cons are
that technology does not always work properly and as a teacher you
would have to find other learning possibilities due to these problems.

Here is the link to my new podcast, ENJOY!!

http://lilcielo.podomatic.com/entry/2009-09-18T07_27_11-07_00

Podcasting

Hey guys, i'm back!! Well my Teaching Language Arts class
is supposed to start podcasting tomorrow. And i'm the most
nervous person ever. Not only am i nervous about the
podcasting and the sound of my voice being taken in my a
microphone. BUT, how am i supposed to use this in my lesson
or even my classroom. I'm scared, but im determined to challenge
myself to learn new things that will better teaching skills and
my classroom. I feel that podcasting will allow more versatile
classroom by reading the book, using the podcast and having them
read it themselves. This would reinforce the fact of the podcasting and
the skills of reading that the children in my classroom need to achieve.
I'm scared about tomorrow but i feel that i will get it over with in good fashion.
STAY TUNED FOR DETAiLS =]

WHAT? Standardized Testing!

Standardized testing is the new theme in schools, especially state-wide
testing that tests all the students in the state on similar subjects learned.
At times testing can benefit students, especailly when they are venturing
off to high school. The GEPA test is definetly around to help students. In
my school districted you needed to achieve a certain grade or you would
be considered unsatisfactory. Which meant that in high school you would
have smaller size classroom, (resource room) intervels in order to help
in the areas where you struggled on the test. In some cases this helped
students achieve the help that they needed with smaller class sizes, which
meant more inidividualized attention and more time to take tests. And on
the other hand it had students like me, struggle to get out of those
classrooms because you just deemed yourself unneccesary to be there.
Fortunatley with good grades in those classrooms, I got out the beginning
of my sophmore year which meant I was mainstream throughout High
School.

But also standardized testing is a way that the government can
see that the schools that are recieving money for education are
putting it to good use. Or if schools are stuggling finanically, which
is making them cut teachers and making class sizes rise to thirty
this will also show in Standardized tests. It will show that the bad
impact that the district causes in spite of cut of money for education.
So in all ways Standardized testing does help give students the
attention they need, and in some districts standardize tests give schools
the money that they need to stay open and pay the teachers
in order to help the students and the jobforce of the future.

Report Cards - -

Hmmm.. Report cards. Do they help or hurt? Well really instead of
looking at it in the students point of view. Maybe we should look through
the parents eyes for a change. Parents do not send their children to school
to become the "average", they send them to school to become the "great".
Which brings in the importance of report cards. Report cards are grades
that have me culminated through a marking period, and allow for an
assessment. Parents deserve to recieve an assessment, i.e report cards
concerning their childrens grades. Otherwise if their children were failing,
and the parents didn't get an assessment until school was over. What can
be done? Nothing! Which is why report cards are important, because it
allows for parents to help their children get the instructional help they need
in order to maintain the good grades.

Also, report cards help the student and the teachers as well. While the
teachers are preparing the grades for the report card they get to see first
hand the reasons why the student is failing. And in the midst of the report
card being sent out to the parents home, the teacher can soon set up
additional help with the child during classtime. Or provide the child our
undivided attention after school on the subjects on which the student is
missing the learning target, or just does not understand. Report cards
allow for a formal assessment that will help the student learn better by
addressing all their learning needs and explaining things in alternated
manners if they need may arise.

Portfolios

Portfolios are defined as a collection of the students work that either
shows their skills in a certain subject, or it could be used as an
assessment of improvement in a particular subject. I feel as a teacher
each student should have a folder with the work they have done in it,
and periodically it should be sent home for their parents to view and sign.
This portfolio would also pose as an assessment to the parents because
they would be able to see, if they need to have a conference with me
about their child’s educational performance. Portfolios should be kept
throughout each marking period in order to keep track of the students
work and progress and class and to see if I obtained my objective for
my class at the start of the year. Although portfolios should go home
once a week for parents to see them, they should be administered to
students at the end of the day closer to three o’clock in order to prevent
children teasing because of grades.


Though while Dr. Luongo was giving her last lecture she did come
across a good point. Students should have a say in what goes in
their portfolio, because they know what best represents their
learning goals. They alone are the only ones who know what they
want to achieve by learning, so their portfolio should be up to them
alone to decide what work or projects go into the portfolio. Because
the portfolios currently are going on with them to the next teacher
the student will have. These portfolios can help them by providing
the next teacher with the knowledge to know what subjects they
did good in, and what subject they struggled in. Portfolios are not
out to hurt students, they are there to be a crutch in the learning
process!

Hey: Multiple Choice Testing!

Ah, tests are a touchy subject for any student regardless of grade
or age. But especially in elementary and middle school grades, tests
are a make or break even for students. Different students from different
testing levels such as: multiple choice answer tests and essay tests. For
my own knowledge and liking, I like essay test format only because it
would give my student a chance to explain the answer they have in
mind, without just having to play “Iny Miny Miney Mo” on an answer.
Because during my sophomore field I have realized that students
struggle more with multiple choice format only because if you do
not know the precise answer, those points for that answer are
gone way before the student begins. While on the essay format
side, the student could have a clear understanding of the material
and be able to explain what they know, they just are unable to
pick a correct answer, or there may be multiple correct answers.
This is where I feel essay tests provide the best help in the
learning experience by giving students a chance.

While on the other hand, multiple choice answers are good
for some reasons, for instance, Language Arts tests. In
Language Arts there are definitions, synonyms and antonyms
which can be comprised with just a one word answer. For example,
the definition or SCARED is FEAR. A simple one word answer,
answered that question without having to have a long explanation
on why it was that answer. At time multiple choice tests can be
the right answer and at time essay question tests are the right
answer, we just have to pick the right time to use them and choose
when they will benefit our students most.

Teachers Should Expect

As a teacher we should have high expectations for our students,
because we are supposed to make great individuals of them. The
more we expect for them is the higher they would want themselves
to achieve. When we have high expectations for students they work
harder because they want to see our faces light up when we are
happy that they have completed their work. And with us having
a high expectation that means that eventually they will work harder
not only to please us as their educators, but in order to strive for those
good grades to prove that they are capable of understanding.

When I was a student in the second grade I can remember the teacher
not pushing us to do much. And I thought in my mind while I was at
school, does she think we can not do more work then she gives us. My
teacher just gave us easy work and never showed us a challenge, which
made me upset because in order to learn the teacher should have high
expectations for what she/he wants the student to be able to learn. So
eventually I worked harder at my studies and made her give me more
work then what I needed, she then raised her standards for us as
students. She gave us harder work then, because she knew that
she could expect more from us. Teachers need to have high expectations
for their students, because without high expectations a student would
not be able to learn.

Homework

Homework is a form of work that the student does at home in order
to reiterate the learning process that occurred in class. As a teacher
I feel that it is a good thing to impose homework on the children.
Because I feel that it allows the students to keep learning about
what they have learned instead of just shutting of their brains
after the school day is over. Homework allows students to learn
while at home, and also pose a form of assessment for the teacher.
The assessement allows the teacher to understand where the
students educational level is at. And also allows the student to be
able to assess their own learning capability and be able to have
the knowledge to know if they need more help or instruction in
a certain subject.

As a child I remember grade school, and my teacher never gave
homework and I felt that it was a wrong thing to do. Never giving me
homework forced me to stop thinking about what I did learn. Not
having homework forced me to forget what I did learn. I do not
want to have this feeling imposed on my students, I want to give
them homework not to make them disgusted about school
but to allow them to learn more.

RubiStar: It Saves Me

For teachers, Rubistar helps tremendously. RubiStar has given me a
guide into the world of assessment based on rubrics. Along with allowing
us to make free rubrics, it gives us an eye into the world of rubrics by
giving us some backround and the defintion of what a rubric is. A
website that provides the world of teachers with free rubrics definetly
helps the grading becoming easier because the assessment is already
there for us to use in order to guide us in the grading process.

In the process of finding a rubric to use in my paper about how i
would use a rubric in the classroom setting, i began to space out. But
when Dr. L provided us with the links to websites to help us with
rubrics and assessment it helped remove some stress I was feeling.
It was so easy to use RubiStar because of the simplicity of the
website. But this is what I needed in having a rubric for whch I
could grade my students' assessment. I just put in all the
information needed and it designed it. It's great and I definetly
will be using this feature again in my future assessments!

What's a Rubric?

Rubric is a form of educational assessment that allows students to
know what the teacher wants of them, before the project is done
and graded. It also let's for them to assess themselves along the
way, and have them conform themselves to the object at hand
especially essays. I find that students have a hard time writing an
essay on a particular subject. But, when a rubric is presented for
them, it allows them to follow the rules in order to produce a good
grade for the work that they have done. I feel that if my teachers
would have used more rubrics in the past, than my fellow
classmates would have done better on papers. Without a rubric
the standards that the teacher would like the studet to reach
from completing the assignment are unclear. Rubrics definetly
help the student grade their own assessment, and helps the
teacher give a better grade on the assignment knowing that the
students were aware of what the teacher needed from the
students.

Learning Targets

Learning targets to me are defined as objectives specified by the
teacher in order to inform the students of what they will be learning
throughout the course of the year. I feel as if students should know
ahead of time what they will be able to accomplish once the year
is over. It promotes somewhat of an independence in learning that
makes them succeed more, because they know what is going to happen.
As a teacher I think it is my responsibility to tell students what will
be happening in the grade level that they are in to dismember and
scared possibilities that they would have of learning new material.

Fairness in Assessment

Fairness in assessment is defined to teachers in different aspects.
Teachers I have experienced in the past have noted fairness
oppurtunities in usual English classes. Because on tests in English
class, those who learned a different language before they learned
English are at a disadvantage. This proposes the view that not all
testing can be fair. Even standardized testing nowadays is even
categorized by gender and even in some cases categorized by
ethnicity. As a teacher I would like to make my classroom as fair
as it can be, and not institute different assessments unless needed
by a student with a learning disability.

Although the usual fairness in assessment has to do with students
being on the same level, but in my past experiences I have noticed
that it also has to deal with test disturbution. When a teacher passes
out a test in class and some students get the test before others, I
see that as unfairness. It shows that whoever gets the test first is
at an advantage because they have more time to complete it, than
the student who was the last one to recieve it. It may seem as a
minimal unfairness in assessment, but for a student five
minutes of time can mean the difference between an 85 and a 90.

Assessment: What's that mean?

Assessment is defined as the process of gathering information to
make decisions. In an educational context, assessment is the process
of observing learning: describing, collecting, recording, scoring, and
interpreting information about a student’s or one’s own learning. To
me assessment doesn't always have to be these boring long tests that
I have had from my teachers in the past. Speaking from a student's
point of view tests are too scarey and pose false assessment in my
opinion. When a student is studying for a whole week, has good grades
throughout the lessons and on homework, but fails a test because of
nervousness I feel that this should be deemed unfair. Students should
have a fair way to be assessed by their teachers.

As a teacher I want to offer my students a fair way to be assessed. Seeing
as how I hate testing and the fact that students are already tested enough
feel that assessment has to be fun and even sometimes instantenous
assessment. In order to get a correct notation of assement students need
to feel comfortable. I feel that the use of Smart Pals in classes would
definetly help the teacher learn what level the students are on, while
all of them are having fun writing with the dry erase markers. Assessment
does not have to be boring in order for it to have a positive outcome. In
my opinion in order for assessment to actually work it has to differ from
time to time to allow students to have fun.

About Amanda =)

Hey guys, i just wanted to tell you thanks for reading this in
advance it shows that you care about where i'm from and interested
in where i'm headed with my life. With that said, Hi =) My name is
Amanda Sepulveda, i'm a sophmore at Saint Peters College, and i'm
a very determined nineteen year old. As a parent, I see the education
and learning process as the insight to the world, as curiousity to want
to understand the world around you. And I love every minute of it.
I have known I wanted to be a teacher since before I started
high school. The aspirations I have for my life are nothing less
than being apart of greatness. I'm en route to become a loveable
third grade teacher who cares about her students.


Education to me is as important as breathing, without it we
wouldn't be able to thrive in society or be successful. A proper
education allows students to grow and think of life in a whole
different perspective. As a teacher I want to care about my
students and provide them the support they need academically
and emotionally. The teachers in my past have caused me to
care about learning and I want to impose that curiosity on my
students as well.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog. This is where i will be speaking about the
different educational technologies and spirts throughout the
world focusing on rubrics and assessments in teaching. I will
be writing here periodically so be sure to check back soon!